The first questions about Scream 4, which has taken many years to come together, revolved around which members of the cast would return. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson, who kicked off a new wave of horror interest with the first Scream, have got Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox all signed to return. But this is theoretically the first chapter of a new trilogy (shudder), which means we need a lot of new characters.

THR says that Lake Bell is in negotiations to join (i.e., expect to see her in the film) while offers have gone out to Greene, Panettiere and Culkin. Wonder if that offer to Greene changed at all after she scored her Breaking Dawn payday? Quite possible, as the trade notes that she would play basically the central character of the film. The new Neve, for now.

Casting is reportedly taking extra time because Craven and Williamson don’t want to send the script out, to prevent leaks. But if this all goes through, Bell would be “a police officer who knew Sidney (Campbell) from high school,” while Greene would play Campbell’s cousin Jill, and “Panettiere would play her best friend, a nerdy film geek. Culkin would play a potential love interest for Jill.” (So is Culkin actually the killer, or just the guy everyone thinks is the killer for two acts?)

The trade says this is seen as “a passing of the baton to a new generation of slasher victims,” which emphasizes that, if nothing else, we can look forward to some of these young thespians getting hacked up.

Here’s some of the other stuff we know about the film, or that has been widely reported:

Scream 4 is being written concurrently with a script for a fifth film by Kevin Williamson.

The movie will be set ten years later in Woodsboro, and is described as “an ensemble” which will introduce several new characters.